Known as the "Super-Dimension Cinderella" (超時空シンデレラ), Ranka is a petite, lively and cheerful (although naive) teenage girl with green hair. She suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome as a result from witnessing the destruction of the 117th Long Distance Research Fleet in which her biological family perished. She is one-quarter Zentradi, which gives her the ability to have her hair move on its own according to her feelings, as well as an above-average resistance to the vacuum of space. As the adopted younger sister of S.M.S. ace Ozma Lee, she initially attends an all-girl's high school at the urging of her brother while working part-time at the Chinese restaurant "Nyan-Nyan" She later transfers to the Mihoshi Academy to facilitate her singing career after being discovered at the Miss Macross contest and the "Bird Human" movie where she plays the role of Mao Nome. Ranka starts off as a huge fan of Sheryl Nome as she has loved singing since childhood and had dreamt of becoming a singer. She develops a crush on Alto Saotome, especially after being rescued by him when the Vajra first attacked the Macross Frontier fleet. It is revealed that she has a deep connection to the Vajra as her songs confuse them and she feels severe pain whenever large amounts of Vajra are killed in her vicinity; the exact nature of this ability is explained as the result of her mother's exposure to the "V-Type" infection during pregnancy. As such, Ranka is referred to as the "Little Queen" by Grace O'Connor, suggesting that her relation to the Vajra may be more than it seems. In episode 21, she leaves the Macross Frontier fleet (along with her bodyguard Brera Sterne) while trying to deliver her Vajra pet "Ai-Kun" to the rest of its species. She and Brera eventually find the planet of origin of the Vajra. Ranka is captured by them just as she recalls her past and realizes that Brera is her biological brother. While being held on the Vajra planet, she realizes that everything that happened to the 117th fleet resulted because her singing attracted the Vajra. Using Ranka's self-perceived blame for the incident, Grace O'Connor manipulates Ranka into compromising the Vajra fold communication network, allowing Grace to send the Vajra against the incoming Macross Frontier fleet during their final battle. However, with the help of Alto, Sheryl, and Brera, she manages to break free from Grace's influence and rallies the Vajra to side with the Frontier fleet to defeat Grace. In the last chapter Ranka saves the life of Sheryl from the "V-Type" microbes that she had, sending from her brain into her abdomen. In the final scene, she tells Sheryl that she will not allow herself to lose, whether in singing or in love.

Ranka shares many characteristics with Lynn Minmay of the original Macross series. Both characters started out working in a Chinese restaurant and both participated in a local beauty pageant (with the exception that Minmay won the Miss Macross pageant while Ranka finished as a runner-up in the Miss Macross Frontier pageant).